Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

13-Jun-2000 -- Before the vacation to Alaska, I had
been wondering why no confluences had been acheived there. Surely, there
was a confluence accessible in the thousands of miles of hiking areas in
the state. On a map, we had noticed that 62n 150w looked to be very near
the the well-traveled George Parks Highway, which runs from Anchorage
through Denali National Park and up to Fairbanks. Scott and I decided to
tackle this confluence. We found a dirt trail off the highway which
passed through an overgrown graveyard of old cars (unsuccessful
confluence seekers?), but the closest we could get from here was about
1.5 miles west of the target. We backed out to the highway, and found an
eastbound road a few miles south of our previous position. This road led
to the Gigglewood Lakeside Inn. In a couple miles the GPS receiver
indicated we were just over tenth of a mile from confluence. It looked
like just a little hike into the woods and our glory as discoverers of
the first Alaskan confluence would be sealed. We bushwhacked our way
into the forest, but were stopped by a swamp in which the confluence was
certainly located. Scott took the camera, and I sloshed and mucked my
way through surprisingly warm waters, oblivious to what dangers might
lurk in the Alaskan swamp or the surrounding forest. We both waded
through, unable to secure a GPS lock on the confluence. Finally, I
chest-deep and Scott knee-deep in water found 62n 150w. When the
celebration had subsided, we finally felt the mosquitoes, which in this
square mile possibly numbered more that in the lower 48 combined. We
hauled out and celebrated in Anchorage with Alaskan Amber and calamine
lotion.